Already a member?

Pitney Bowes Beats Estimates - Analyst Blog

Pitney Bowes Inc.
(
PBI
) reported fourth-quarter 2012 earnings per share from continuing
operations of 56 cents, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 51
cents but below the prior-year earnings of 98 cents. The earnings
for the quarter include net tax benefit of 37 cents as a result
of an agreement between the company and the IRS on the tax
treatment of a number of issues, as well as revised tax
calculations.

For 2012, the company's earnings per share from continuing
operations were $2.18 compared with $2.75 in 2011. The Zacks
Consensus Estimate for the year was $2.00.

Total Revenue

Total revenue was $1.3 billion; down 1% y/y. Foreign currency
effect was neutral to total revenue. Revenue in the quarter was
aided by improvement in revenue trend in four of its business
segments.

For 2012, total revenue was $4.9 billion, down 4% year over
year.

Segment Performance

Small and Medium Business (SMB) Solutions
segment sales declined 6% year over year on a constant currency
basis to $644 million, as a result of a fall in North America
Mailing revenue by 6%, partially offset by a 4% increase in
International Mailing revenue.

Enterprise Business Solutions
segment sales increased by 1% year over year to $643 million, led
by a 2% increase in revenue from Software, 5% in Management
Services and 2% in Mail Services. The positive effect was
partially offset by a 5% decrease in Marketing Services revenue
and 6% in Worldwide Production Mail revenue.

Income

The company incurred total SG&A expense of approximately
$410.3 million in the quarter versus approximately $425.5 million
in the fourth quarter of 2011. R&D expense was $32.4 million
versus $40.9 million. Income from continuing operations of the
company was $147.8 million compared with $23 million in the
prior-year period.

Balance Sheet

Cash and cash equivalents were $913.3 million with long-term
debt of $3.6 billion and shareholder's deficit of $110.6 million
compared to prior year figures of $856.3 million, $3.7 billion
and shareholders' deficit of $39 million, respectively.

Free cash flow in the quarter was $215.3 million versus $289.5
million in fourth quarter of 2010.

Outlook

The company expects its revenue growth trend to improve in
2013 with a number of initiatives designed to drive new growth
opportunities. In 2013, the Company expects revenue growth in its
Enterprise Solutions Group and an improvement in revenue in its
SMB Solutions Group though the segment is expected to still
witness a negative growth.

For 2013, revenue growth, excluding the impact of currency, is
expected to be in the range of flat to a 3% increase. The company
expects earnings per share from continuing operations to be in
the range of $1.85 to $2.00. Free cash flow for 2013 is expected
to be in the range of $600 million to $700 million.

Pitney Bowes currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) which might
not be a good stock to consider at the moment. However, some
other companies that can be considered at the moment are
Tyco International
(
TYC
) which has a Zacks Rank #1 and
Symantec Corp.
(
SYMC
).

Please note that once you make your selection, it will apply to all future visits to NASDAQ.com.
If, at any time, you are interested in reverting to our default settings, please select Default Setting above.

If you have any questions or encounter any issues in changing your default settings, please email isfeedback@nasdaq.com.

Please confirm your selection:

You have selected to change your default setting for the Quote Search. This will now be your default target page;
unless you change your configuration again, or you delete your
cookies. Are you sure you want to change your settings?